A RAFIl) SUEVET 



OF THE 



lEASSACHUSETTS 



EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 



Harris 




Class _44^2^ 

Book n y- 

Gopightlj? 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A RAPID SURVEY 
OF THE 

MASSACHUSETTS 
EBUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

BY CHARLES A. HARRIS, A. B. 

Author of "Idioms and Phrases of Caesar' 



1\ ^^^ 



Copyright, 19 lo, 
By CHARI.BS A. Harris. 



©Cf. A 2 735 4 5 



Preface 



This little book is by no means an historical 
treatise. It makes no pretense to set forth the 
cause and effect of any period or periods. It is 
merely, as the title suggests, a rapid survey of the 
educational system of Massachusetts — a succinct 
compendium of educational facts which, the author 
trusts, will give teachers who have little time for an 
earnest research into the educational system of the 
State, a clearer insight into the growth, experi- 
ments, past and present institutions of our school 
system. 

The author wishes to express his indebtedness 
to the Annual Reports of the State Eoard of Educa- 
tion for much material in this compilation. 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Colonization 


9 


Boston Karly Records . 


10 


Boston Latin School 


10 


Harvard College 


II 


Law of 1642 


^3 


Law of 1647 


15 


Law of 1654 


18 


Law of 1683 


19 


Plymouth Colony 


20 


Unification of the Colonies 


22 


The Pre -District System 


23 


Law of 1789 


24 


School District System 


25 


Earl}^ School Reports 


35 


Public Schools of 1826 


37 


American Institute of Instruction 


41 


County Teachers' Associations 


42 


Massachusetts School Fund 


44 


Indian School Fund 


46 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Todd Normal School Fund 


47 


District School Libraries 


48 


State Board of Education 


50 


Statistics of 1908 


56 


Statistics of 1837 


57 


New State Board 


58 


School Returns of 1837 


60 


School Reports of 1838-39 


63 


School Reports of 1839-40 


72 


Normal Schools 


74 


Massachusetts Teachers' Association 


81 


Teachers' Institutes 


<^3 


Educational Dates 


SS 


Massachusetts High School 


94 


Miscellaneous 


100 



o 
S 

» 5 



^4 

00 

O 



00 
so 






o 



^ W *~*^ 

o* r?" K^ 



o 



00 





S. 


M 


B. 


Ov 


o 


Js! 


ii> 


V 


o 


M 


rt 


00 


"^ 


o 


E3 






M 


•D 


n> 


fD 


o 


•-t 




a 


2 


o 










^ 


7:i 


o* 




y 


o 


M 


^ 


^ 


a> 


00 




VO 


»^> 



ON 




COLONIZATION. 



Aithougli the Plymouth Colony antedates the 
Massachusetts Bay Colony by a decade, yet because 
of its comparative poverty and paucity, its educa- 
tional system was not inaugurated for fifty years 
after the landing at Plymouth. We will therefore 
l)egin at once to enumerate the educational features 
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 

The Massachusetts Bay Colonists, approximately 
o:ic thousand in number, arrived in 1630. They set 
to work immediately to build log-houses for their 
dwellings, and a church for worship. It was not 
long after their arrival, however, that plans were 
formulated for an educational system. Public 
schools were voluntarily established in several of 
the towns before the passage of the first school law 
by the General Court in 1642. Before the close of 
the year 1630 nearly fifteen hundred Puritans land- 
ed at Massachusetts, settling Boston, Chariest own, 
Roxbury, Dorchester, Watertown and Cambridge. 
By the year 1634 approximately four thousand had 
arrived settling twenty towns or parishes, therebj^ 
averaging two hundred persons to a parish. Be- 
tween 1630 and 1640 twenty thousand were added 
to the Massachusetts Colony 



lo BOSTON EARLY RECORDS. 



Boston Early Records. 

The date of the first entry in the Boston Town 
Records was July i , 1634. The date of the first en- 
try in regard to schools was April 13, 1635 — thus 
(i) "Likewise it was then generally agreed upon 
that our brother Philemon Pormort shalbe intreated 
to become schole-master, for the teaching and nour- 
tcring of children with us. ' ' 

The school over which Pormort was placed was 
called the 

Boston Latin School. 

The first school founded in New Er gland was 
the Boston Latin School opened in 1635. It was 
started by subscriptions, receiving part support from 
the town which finally took upon itself the entire 



( I ) Second Report of Boston Record Commissioners, 
p. 5. History of Boston, Snow, p. 348. Horace 
Mann's Tenth Report, p. 7. Joseph Uhite, For- 
tieth Report, p. 104. Geo. H. Martin, "Evolution 
of the Massachusetts Public School System," p. i. 



HARVARD COLLEGE ii 



cost of its maintenance. This school was for over 
half a century the only school in Boston. Boston 
was at that time a little village of from twenty to 
thirty houses. It was made a city in 1822, with a 
population of 45,000 and about 7,000 voters, and 
now has a population of more than 600,000. 

Harvard Coi^IvKGE. 

In the "History of New England" edited by 
Howard and Crocker, p. 33, we find this : — "Pre- 
vious to 1636 there were at least nine churches in 
existence in the Massachusetts Colony" — Salem, 
Watertown, Boston, Charlestown, Lynn, Roxbury, 
Dorchester, Newtown, Ipswich. 

Most of the clergy and not a few of the laity 
were University men, so it was but natural that 
their thoughts should turn toward the establish- 
ment of a college, (i) Ini636;^40o were appro- 
priated by the General Court of Massachusetts for 



(i) Records of Mass. Bay, Vol. i, p. 183. 



12 HARVARD COLLEGE 



the establishment (4) at Ne^\'town,now Cambridge, 
of a school or college which in 1639 by a decree of 
the General Court was called (5) Harvard College 
in honor of Rev. John Harvard, who in his will of 
1638, left to this school his library of 320 books and 
half his property amounting to ^779 17 s. 2 p. 
The regular course of instruction began in 1638, 
and four years later nine graduates received de- 
grees. (6) In 1640 the ferry between Boston and 
Charlestown was granted to the college. 

John Fiske in ' 'The Beginnings of New Erg- 
land, "p. Ill, says: - "The act of establishing 
Harvard College was a memorable one if we have 
regard to all the circumstances of the year in which 
it was done. On every side danger was in the air. 
Threatened at once with an Indian war, with the 
enmity of the home government, and with grave 



(4)Recordsof Mass. Bay, Vol. i, p. 20S. 
(5) Records of Mass. Bay, Vol. i, p. 253. 
(6)Records of Mass. Bay, Vol.i, p. 304. 



LAW OF 1642 13 



dissensions among themselves, the year 1636 was 
a trying one indeed for the little community of 
Puritans, and their founding a college by public 
taxation just at this time is a striking illustration 
of their unalterable purpose to realize, in this new 
home, their ideal of an educated Christian society." 
In 1636 there were sixteen towns, and a popu- 
lation of 4,000. With ;^4oo to raise this meant 
a tax of fifty cents apiece. 



First School Law. 



In the year 1642 the founders of the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts represented by the General 
Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay passed 
their first legislative enactment in regard to the ed- 
ucation of its people. According to this ordinance 
the education of every child was compulsory, that 
is, universal, but not necessarily free. 

Instruction was given at home. There was no 
mention of a school in the law, and no penalty was 



14 LAW OF 1642 



imposed for neglecting to maintain one. The par- 
ents were required to teach their children "to read 
perfectly the English tongue, and knowledge of the 
Capital Laws, upon penalty of twenty shillings for 
each neglect therein. ' ' Parents were also required 
to teach their children the principles of religion. 

In 1642 the Plymouth Colony had about i,coo in- 
habitants while the Massachusetts Bay Colony num- 
bered more than 20,000. In 1643 Massachusetts, 
Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven united 
for mutual protection. 

The wording of the law of 1642 was as follows : 
"Forasmuch as the good education of children is 
of singular behoofe and benefit to any Common- 
wealth, and whereas many parents and masters are 
too indulgent and negligent of their duty in that 
kind; "(i) "It is ordered, that the chosen men for 
managing the prudentials of every town, in the 
several precincts and quarters where they dwell, 
shall have a vigilant eye over their neighbors, to 
see, first that none of them shall suffer so mucli 



(i)Records of Mass. Bay, Vol. 2, pp. 6, 8. 



LAW OF 1647 15 



barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeav- 
or to teach, by themselves or others, tlieir children 
and apprentices, so much learning as maj^ enable 
them to read perfectly the English tongue, and a 
knowledge of the Capital Laws, upon penalt}^ of 
twenty shillings for each neglect therein. ' ' 

' 'Also that all masters of families do once a week 
(at the least) cate:hise their children and servants 
in the grounds and principles of religion." 

The supervision was in the hands of the select- 
men who were to have a "vigilant eye over their 
neighbors" to see that the law was carried into ef- 
fect. 

Law of 1647. 

(i)By the law of 1647 every town of fifty house- 
holders was required to maintain a school in which 
reading and writing should be taught; and every 
town of one hundred householders was required 
to maintain a Grammar school. This law remain- 



(i)Records of Mass. Bay, Vol. 2, p. 203. 



1 6 LAW OF 1647 



ed in force until 1789. The Grammar schools were 
similar to the old cathedral Grammar schools of 
England with the purpose of fitting boys for the 
University, therefore implying the teaching of the 
ancient languages. 

Within thirty years from the landing of the Pil- 
grims the school system which began with the col- 
lege was complete with its three grades of schools 
practically as they exist to-day. 

The law of 1647 made the support of public schools 
compulsory, and education not only universal but 
free, although the town might determine whether 
it or the parents should bear the expense. The 
function of the Grammar school was to prepare for 
college as that of the college was to fit for the min- 
istry. 

(i)The penalty at first was five pounds; increased 
in 1671 to ten pounds; in 1683 to twenty pounds; 
in 17 18 to thirty pounds if the towns consisted of 
one hundred fifty families: the penalty was forty 



(i)Iyaws of Mass. Bay, Vol. 4, p. 486. 



LAW OF 1647 17 



pounds on towns having two hundred families, and 
so pro rata in case the town consisted of two hun- 
dred fifty or three hundred families. 

There were about fort}^ towns at this time, and 
the population was about 21,000. 

The law with its preamble follows:- "It being- 
one chiefe project of that ould deluder, Sathan, to 
keepe men from the knowledge of the Scriptures,, 
as in former times by keeping them in an unknowne 
tongue, so in these latter times by perswading 
from the use of tongues, that so at least the true 
sence and meaning of the originall might be cloud- 
ed by false glosses of saint seeming deceivers, that 
learning may not be buried in the grave of our 
fathers in the church and commonwealth, the Lord 
assisting our endeavors 

"It is therefore ordered, that every township in 
this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased 
them to the number of fifty householders, shall 
then forthwith appoint one within their towne to 
teach all such children as shall resort to him to 
write and read, whose wages shall be paid either 
by the parents or masters of such children, or by 



LAW OF 1654 



the inhabitants in generall, by way of supply, as 
the major part of those that order the prudentials 
of the towne shall appoint; provided those that 
send their children be not oppressed by paying 
much more than they can have them taught in oth- 
er townes; ~ And it is further ordered that where 
auA^ towne shall increase to the number of one hun- 
dred families or householders they shall set up a 
Grammar schoole, the master thereof being able 
to instruct youth so farr as they may be fited for 
the university, provided that if any towne neglect 
the performance hereof above one yeare, every 
such towne shall pay five shillings to the next 
schoole till they shall perform this order." / . 

Seven Grammar schools w^ere established before 
1647 — at Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown, Dor- 
chester, Salem, Ipswich and Roxbury. 

Law of 1654. 

The colonists looked toward the moral as well 
as the intellectual as is shown by the following 
law : - 



LAW OF 1683 19 



( i) * 'Forasmuch as it greatly concerns the welfare 
of this country that the youth thereof be educated 
not only in good Litterature but in sound doctrine; 

This Court doth therefore commend it to the se- 
rious consideration and special care of the Overseers 
of the College, and the selectmen in the several 
towns not to admit or suffer any such to be con- 
tinued in the office or place of Teaching, Kduca- 
ting or Instructing Youth or children in the College 
or Schools that have manifested themselves un- 
sound in the faith or scandalous in their lives, and 
not giving due satisfaction according to the rules 
of Christ." 

Law of 1683. 

(2) In 1683 all towns of more than five hundred 
families or householders were required to maintain 
two Grammar schools and two writing schools. A 
penalty of ten pounds to be paid to the next school 



(i) Records of Mass. Bay, Vol. 3, pp. 343-344. 

Vol. 4, Part I, pp. 182-183. 
(2) Records of Mass. Bay, Vol. 5, p. 414. 



20 PLYMOUTH COLONY 



was inflicted on such towns, and a penalty of twen- 
ty pounds on towns of two hundred families or 
householders. 

Plymouth Colony. 

It was half a century after the Pilgrims landed 
at Plymouth that the first free school was establish- 
ed. ^ 

Their first work was to erect a Common -House 
or Rendez-vous, build ashed for supplies and a hos- 
pital for the sick. During the first winter about a 
half dozen dwellings were constructed. Their lot 
was one of struggle and privation ; thus an organ- 
ized system of education was naturally of slower 
growth than that of the wealthier Massachusetts 
Colony. Before the dawn of 1644 Dux bury, Scit- 
uate, Taunton, Barnstable, Sandwich and Yarmouth 
were flourishing settlements. 

(i)In 1663 suggestions from the Court that each 
town maintain a school for reading and writing were 



(i)Plymouth Colony Records, Vol. 11, pp. 142, 211. 



PLYMOUTH COLONY 21 



made. These suggestions were not immediately 
heeded. 

(i)At the General Court held in 1670 it was de- 
creed that the profits of the cape fishing be used 
towards the support of a free school in some town 
in the colony. The Governor and Assistants were 
the committee. Three years after, in 1673, this 
committee rendered a report of progress, and Mr. 
Thomas Hinckley was appointed teacher. The 
cost of maintaining this school was about thirty- 
three pounds a year. 

The law of 167 1, similar to the one of 1642 of 
the Massachusetts Colony, required the teaching of 
reading, knowledge of capital laws, grounds and 
principles of religion. 

( 2)In 1677 a law, similar to the law of 1647 of 
the Massachusetts Colony, was passed authorizing 
towns of fifty famiUes to maintain a Grammar school, 
and towns of seventy families were required to keep 
such a school. 



(i)Plymouth Colony Records, Vol. 5, p. 108. 
(2) Plymouth Colony Records, Vol. 11, p. 248. 



22 UNIFICATION OF THE COLONIES 



In the Plymouth Records of 1678, Vol. 10, p. 36S; 
we find this: -- * John Indian Teacher of Mattakes- 
sett is allowed three pounds for his labor in preach- 
ing and teaching school among the Indians; and is 
ordered for the continuing in that work for the fol- 
lowing year. " • 

In 168 1 the Plymouth Records state that the Court 
made appropriations for two schools as follows: - 
twelve pounds for the maintenance of Rehobeth 
school, and eight pounds for the Duxbury school. 

In the same records of 1682, Vol. 6, pp. 102-103, 
we find that the Court ordered the "cape money" 
to be distributed as follows: - 

Barnstable School twelve pounds, 

Duxbury School eight pounds, 

Rehobeth School five pounds, 

Taunton School three pounds. 

The Two Colonies United. 

By the new charter, given by King WilUam, Ply- 
mouth and Maine were added to Massachusetts. 

The government of this single royal Province was 
organized in 1 69 2 . The governor , deputy governor , 



THE PRE-DISTRICT SYSTEM 23 



and secretary were appointed by the king; the peo- 
ple chose the twenty-eight councilors. Each town 
was represented by two deputies at the General 
Court. 

From 1692 to 1780, called the Provincial Period, 
although a number of laws were enacted, little 
improvement was manifest. A law was passed in 
1 701 requiring the certification of the Grammar 
master by the local minister and by two in adjacent 
towns. In 1 70 1 and 17 18 penalties for the non-ob- 
servance of the school laws were incorporated into 
the statutes. 

The Pre-District System. 

The early settlers migrated in congregations guid- 
ed by the minister, and thus the old parish system 
of England became the town and political unit in 
America. 
(i)Previous to 1768 schools were maintained by the 



(i)Fourth Annual Report of the Massachusetts 
State Board of Education, p. 17. 



24 LAW OF 1789 



towns, but after that date, and until 1789, the pre- 
cincts or parishes could maintain schools by a tax 
imposed upon the parishioners. These precincts 
[communities in a township some distance from the 
center] were parishes having power at first in eccle- 
siastical matters only. In 1833 these territorial par- 
ishes were disorganized, and the clergymen no long- 
er were under the obligation to visit schools as a 
part of their parochial duty. 

Law of 1789. 

The law of 1789 required towns of two hundred 
families, instead of one hundred, as heretofore, to 
maintain a Grammar school. Up to this time the 
selectmen had been charged with the supervision 
of the schools, but by this law "ministers of the 
gospel and the selectmen or such other persons 
as shall be specially chosen by each town or district 

^ for that purpose" constituted the school committee. 

^ Their duty was to encourage attendance, and to 

visit the schools at least once in six months. This 
form of supervision continued until 1826. 



SCHOOL DISTRICT SYSTEM 25 



School District System. 

The act of 1789 authorized the establishment of 
the towns into school districts in order to facilitate 
the attendance upon the schools. This act gave 
power merely to divide the towns into such sections 
as would more effectively ensure better attendance. 

At first these districts wielded no power — not a 
single duty was assigned them. The schools w^ere, 
as formerly, under the control of the towns. In 
fact the process of districting was by no means ob- 
ligatory. 

By an act approved in 1800 the selectmen were 
authorized to warn district meetings at which the 
voters should appropriate money for building or re - 
pairing school-houses and purchasing school fur- 
nishings. Thus power was given the district which 
virtually became a corporation. The town had to 
pay b}^ assessment the money voted by the district. 

By the law of 18 17 * 'school districts were made 
corporations in name, and authorized to sue and be 
sued, and empowered to hold, in fee simple or 
otherwise, real or personal estate for the use of the 
schools. ' ' 



26 SCHOOIv DISTRICT SYSTEM 



Prudential committees, elected by the district, 
who had the care of the school houses and hiring, 
or more exactly, nominating teachers were author- 
ized in 1827. Town school committees were requir- 
ed the preceding year. 

Hon. George H. Martin, in his ''Evolution of the 
Massachusetts Public School System," p. 92, says 
of the law of 1827 — "It marks the culmination of 
a process which had been going on steadily for 
more than a century. It marks the utmost limit to 
the subdivision of American sovereignty — the 
high-water mark of modern democracy, and the low- 
water mark of the Massachusetts school system." 
These committeemen were usuall)^ chosen in the 
district instead of in the town meetings, although 
the latter was authorized by law. The office of 
prudential committees was usually a rotating office 
therefore the incumbent might be well qualified or 
otherwise to nominate a teacher. Under the school 
district system the responsibility devolved upon no 
one. 

In Hanover, Mass. report in the thirty-fourth 
Annual, p. 240, we find the following : — "Under 
the district system, prudential committees chose 



SCHOOL DISTRICT SYSTEM 



teachers, deciding upon the question of their phys- 
ical and moral qualifications, while the^town com- 
mittee were permitted to decide only as to their lit- 
erary qualifications. There was sometimes a con- 
flict of opinion which did not benefit the school. 
More commonly, however, it led to a want of care 
on the part of the prudential committee, and the 
town committee as well. ' ' 

"Prudential committees were careless in their 
selection of teachers, for thej^ thought that the 
town committee having a final voice in the decision 
would settle the question of their fitness. The town 
committee always felt that as these had been settled 
by the proper officers of the district, they ought to^ 
be approbated, if possible. Hence persons were 
placed in charge of schools, whom neither party 
would have approbated, had the members of it pos- 
sessed the sole responsibility. With the authority^ 
and responsibility vested in our committee, this re- 
sult will not follow. ' ' 

The aversion to change is exemplified in several 
reports made by committees in the last-mentioned 
Annual. Of reports coming ^ from thirty towns 
treating of the district system, only four towns 



28 SCHOOL DISTRICT SYSTEM 



voiced any pessimistic sentiment. Of these four, 
the first recorded in the Annual was one of the last 
to give up the school district system. The second 
was still clinging to the system when it was finally 
abolished, thirteen years later ; the report of this 
town shows that the committee longed for the res- 
toration of the old system. The third was one of 
the towns that petitioned in 1870 for the restoration 
of the district system ; the committee, in its 
report, frowned upon the legislative act which 
abolished the system. The fourth separated itself 
from the district system only when the law finalh- 
compelled it ; the committee expressed their sus- 
picion of the wisdom of abolishing the system. 

(The Annual Reports of the State Board of Ed- 
ucation contained abstracts of school committees' 
reports from 1837 to 1877.) 

B}^ a law of 1853 districts could be discontinued 
flt the discretion of the school committee, unless 
the town voted otherwise. In 1859 the district 
system was abolished, and in the same year this act 
was repealed. By an act of '69, after much dis- 
cussion and delay, t^he school district system was 
abolished by a unanimous vote in the Senate and 



SCHOOL DISTRICT SYSTEM 29 



with only nine opposing votes in the House. By 
an act of 1870, as a result of petitions f^^m several 
towns, the re-establishishment of the school district 
system was permissible by a two-thirds vote, and 
more than fifty towns voted to re-establish the sys- 
tem. This law was passed by both branches not- 
withstanding the fact that the committee on Kduca - 
tion reported adversely to the petition. 

Only thirty-three towns presented petitions sign- 
ed by only twenty six per cent, of the voters of 
these towns : Fifteen in Franklin County - 
Heath Leverett Orange New Salem 

Coleraine Warwick Eernardston Shutesbury 
Deerfield Northfield Ashfield Erving 

Conway Shelburne Gill 

Nine in Eerkshire County : 
Lenox Sandisfield West Stockbricge 

Stockbridge Eecket Monterey 

Pittsfield Hinsdale Tyringham 

Three in Plymouth County : Plympton, Ware- 
ham, Rochester. One in Essex : Newbury. One 
in Worcester : Oakham. One in Hampden : Tol- 
land. One in Barnstable : Barnstable. One in 
Norfolk : Canton. One in Hampshire : South 
Hampton, 



30 SCHOOL DISTRICT SYSTEM 



By an act of 1873 a town by vote might abolish 
the school district system. Ey an act of 1882 the 
school district system was finally abolished. There 
were about forty -five towns then adhering to it. 

(i)Fromthe returns of the year 1876 we find 
that the following forty-six towns held to the dis- 
trict system : Eleven in Berkshire County— Eeck- 
et, Egremont, Florida, Great Barrington, Hancock, 
Monterey, New Marlboro, Richmond, Sandisfield, 
Savo3^ West Stockbridge : Eleven in Franklin - 
Ashfield, Eernardston, Charlemoiit, Ervir.g, Gill, 
Leverett, Ley den. New Salem, Northfield, Sliutes- 
l)ury , Warwick : Nine in Worcester- Ashburnham , 
Boylston, Brookfield, Douglas, Harvard, Hubbard - 
ston, Lunenburg, Rutland, Sutton: Four in Hamp- 
den- Granville, Ludlow, Southwick, Tolland: Six 
in Hampshire- Chesterfield, Cummington, Green- 
wich, Prescott, Williamsburg, Worthington: Or.e 
in Essex- Newbury; Four in Bristol: Attleloro, 
Mansfield, Rehobeth, Swansea. 

«--^»-*^ 

(i)Fortieth Annual Report of the State Board of 
Education, p. 95. 



SCHOOL DISTRICT SYSTEM 31 



For fifty years or thereatouts after the passage 
of the law of 1789, when Massachusetts^was sparse- 
ly inhabited, the school district system stood almost 
unchallenged, but when the population became dens- 
er and cities and towns were founded, the inade- 
quacy of the system was apparent. 

In 1826 there were 1,726 school districts. Eight 
years later there were 2,251. In the fourth An- 
nual Report, p. 17, it is stated that in the 307 towns 
there were 2,500 school districts. In 1848-49 there 
were 3,748 districts. 

Every secretary and agent of the State Eoard of 
Education had pronounced the district s^^stem the 
greatest barrier to educational progress. 

Hon. Horace Mann, in the tenth Report, p. 36, 
said,* 'I consider the law of 1789 authorizing towns 
to divide themselves into districts, the most imfor- 
tunate law, on the subject of common schools, ever 
enacted in the State." 

Rev. Bamas Sears said of the above statement 
in the fourteenth Report, p. 29, "The justness of 
the above observation is illustrated ever3^ day by 
the evils which are forcing themselves upon the 
public attention from every quarter. ' ' 



32 SCHOOL DISTRICT SYSTEM 



Hon. Geo. S. Eoutwell in the twenty-third Re- 
port, p. 75, said, "I entered upon the duties of the 
office I novV hold with some faith in the district sys- 
tem; my observation and experience have destroyed 
that faith entirely." "It is a system admirably cal- 
culated to secure poor schools, irxompetent teach- 
ers, consequent waste of public money, and yet nei- 
ther committees, nor districts, nor towns be respon- 
sible therefor." 

Again he said in the twenty-fourth Report, p. 115, 
**I am so well convinced of the wisdom of abolish- 
ing the district system, that I confidently expect its 
gradual abandonment. ' ' 

Hon. Joseph White, in the twenty-ninth Report, 
p. 85, said, "I have seen and experienced, as my 
predecessors did, the unfortunate and depressing in- 
fluence of the school district system. And I con- 
tent myself with saying, that every day's observa- 
tion gives strength to my convictions of its utter- 
incompatibility with any high degree of success in 
the management of school affairs Indeed, I have 
ceased to look for further progress where its influ- 
ence is unbroken. Defiant and frowning, it stands 
square in the path. It cannot be avoided; a "flank 



SCHOOL DISTRICT SYSTEM 33 



movement" will not turn it, and there is no room 
for compromise. Then, and then on^y, will fur- 
ther advance be possible, when the people of the 
Commonwealth, in the exercise of that power which 
is their right, and of that wisdom which an unfor- 
tunate experience has given, shall remove the ob- 
struction from the way." 

Again in the thirty -first Report, p. 45, he said, 
''There can be no regular classification, no regular 
order of studies, and of course no uniform system 
of teaching, in the schools where the district system 
prevails. ' ' 

John W. Dickinson in the forty -third Report, p. 
65, said, "There appears to be no sufficient reason 
for a longer continuance of the district system in 
the State. It opposes the improvement of our 
schools while it increases the expense of their sup- 
port. As a fact, the schools in towns where the 
district system still holds are on the whole, inferior 
in quality, if not in quantity." 



(An invaluable account of the School District 
System is given in the sixteenth Annual Report of 
the State Board of Education, pp. 24-51.) 



34 SCHOOL DISTRICT SYSTEM 



A district meeting held in September 1832, show- 
ing the tendency to local interference, resulted thus: 
**A vote taken by dividing the house to ascertain 
what number in their meeting were in favor of Mr. 
Forbes teaching their school the ensuing winter, 
and how many opposed, and found eleven in favor 
and thirteen opposed. ' ' In October a special meet- 
ing was held resulting as follows :- 

Article i. To choose a moderator. 

Article 2. To see if the district will direct their 
committee to dismiss Daniel H. Forbes from teach- 
ing their school the ensuing season. 

Voted to direct their prudential committee to dis- 
miss Daniel H. Forbes from teaching their school 
the ensuing season, the votes being in number twen- 
ty-eight and all for dismissing Mr. Forbes. 

Voted to choose a committee of three to inform 
their prudential committee of the proceedings of this 
meeting, and made choice of Elihu Fuller, Henry 
Richardson and Silas Richardson. 

Voted that this committee request their pruden- 
tial committee to emplo}^ another teacher for the 
ensuing season. 

The proceedings at another district meeting in 



EARLY SCHOOL REPORTS 35 



1836 follow: — 

Article i. To elect a moderator. 

Article 2. To elect a clerk. 

Article 3. To elect a prudential committeeman. 

Article 4. To see it the district will procure a 
stove and funnel for their school-house or act any 
matter or thing respecting the same. 

The inhabitants of the district met at the school- 
house, and disposed of the first three articles with 
dispatch. The fourth article was unquestionably 
food for discussion, which ended thus: - Voted 
that the prudential committeeman procure a stove 
and funnel provided he can obtain money by sub- 
scription, also to instruct him to draw up a paper to 
that effect and put it in circulation forthwith. 

Early School Reports. 

The first school returns ever made to the Com- 
monweath of Massachusetts were rendered in the 
year 1826 when one himdred fifteen towns made 
returns. They were folded like old fashioned let- 
ters and sealed with wax. No penalty was provid- 
ed for non-compliance with the statute, and eighty, 
eight towns neglected to obey the law This atti- 



36 EARIvY SCHOOL REPORTS 



tude on the part of the towns continued to such an 
extent that in 1 83 1 only eighty-six towns rendered 
reports. It was not until after the creation of the 
state fund in 1834, which was given to towns com- 
pl3'ii:g with the state laws, that towns began to ren- 
der reports. Of three hundred five towns, two 
hundred sixty-one made returns in 1834. 

In the year 1826 two sets of reports were made-- 
one by the school committees, and one by the select- 
men on this wise:-- By a law of Mar. 4th, i826» 
towns were first required to elect town school com- 
mittees who were to be furnished blank forms by 
the State, and make returns in regard to the num- 
ber and condition of the schools. But by a resolve 
of Feb. 24th of the same year, returns were to be 
rendered by the selectmen. Although this resolu- 
tion was reconsidered and rescinded, two reports 
were forthcoming, and were the only school returns 
ever made to the Commonwealth by selectmen. 



(See Twenty-second Annual Report, pp. 46-47.) 
(See Sixty-fourth Annual Report, pp. 233-250. ) 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF 1826 37 



Public Schools of 1826. 

Frank A. Hill, sixth secretary of the Massachu- 
setts State Board of Education, in the sixty-fourth 
Annual Report, pp. 247-249, writes as follows:- "A 
complete surv^ey of our public school system seven- 
ty-five years ago cannot here be attempted. A 
general idea of the situation may be formed, how- 
ever, when we contemplate such school returns as 
we have for those times, and consider further that 
there was then no compulsory attendance; that the 
length of schooling showed astonishing diversities, 
sometimes from two months to twelve, even in the 
same town; that this length was frequently eked 
out by private subscription; that large numbers of 
teachers were incompetent; that schools were con- 
stantly changing their teachers; that factory work 
for young children was in vogue; that school build- 
mgs were generallj^ poor; that teaching apparatus 
w^as almost entirely lacking; that pupils in consid- 
erable numbers were without text-books; that the 
presence of girls in the public schools of the older 
and wealthier towns was practically discouraged; 
that the wealth and culture of the State largely 



38 PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF 1826 



patronized private rather than pubHc schools; that 
the city of Boston declined to admit pupils to its 
public schools until they could read and write, and 
even then ruled out its girls for half the year; that 
there was a reprehensible trend, where private 
schools flourished, to look upon public school child- 
ren as charity children; that public school second- 
ary education had become nearly extinct; that there 
were no normal schools, no teachers' associations, 
no educational journals, no school fund, no measures 
of State help, no State supervision, and so on 
through the long list of things enjoyed to-day, but 
then unknown. These were the years when the 
public school spirit of the State seemed to have 
sunk to its lowest level. Many of the foregoing 
conditions were the unavoidable accompaniment of 
the times, the best conditions, in fact then possible, 
and are respectfully mentioned as interesting stages 
in the evolution of our school history. As for the 
rest, they ranged from the excusable to the dis- 
creditable. The worst of them were due in some 
measure — but how fully cannot be here discussed, 
to the State's mistake of 1789 in recognizing sub- 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF 1826 39 



divisions of the town, known as school districts, as 
proper units for school administration. These units 
were so multiplied that large numbers of them were 
too small and too poor to do justice to their respon- 
sibilities, and their powers were so increased that 
the towns as towns were shorn of about everything 
like a central control of their schools and a central 
interest in them. The State was capable of better 
things, andthere were thoughtful people like James 
Carter, the Rev. Charles Brooks, Edmund Dwight, 
and others who were profoundly stirred to try for 
these better things. Hence the creation, of the 
school fund, the organization of the Board of Edu- 
cation, the heroic work of Horace Mann, the found- 
ing of normal schools, and a long train of agencies 
whose underlying basis is the great conviction that 
the supreme interest of Massachusetts, upon which 
every other interest depends, is the wise education 
of her boys and girls. 

It must not be inferred, however, that there were 
no bright spots in the public schools of 1826. On 
the contrary, there were noble-minded and inspiring 
teachers here and there who worked on sound prin- 



40 PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF 1826 



ciples, such as we have come to prize in these later 
days, even if they were not always conscious of so 
doing; here and there oases of special school inter- 
est; here and there study boys and girls, whom ad- 
verse conditions seemed to nerve to higher endeav- 
or; here and there ideals above the average, that 
led to the establishment of private schools where 
the pubUc schools fell short; here and there influ- 
ences from the educational life of Eiu-ope beginning 
to make themselves felt; and, dotting the State like 
beacon lights, partly a cause and partly a conse- 
quence of thedecUne in pubHc secondary education, 
were the academies, where the more favored youth 
of the Commonwealth were initiated into those high- 
er branches of learning for which the colonists had 
made provision in the public grammar schools, but 
which in our later provincial and State history had 
gradually dropped out of the public school system. 
And since 1826 the Legislature, notwithstanding 
haltings and occasional backward steps, has shown, 
on the whole, a keener sensitiveness to the needs of 
the pubHc schools than the towns it represents. In- 
deed, we do not realize that certain precious things 



AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION 41 



which we now take for granted as belonging to the 
very grain and heart of our public schools might 
not have been there at all had it not been for the 
foresight and wisdom of those who have given the 
system its present character. So that, even in 1 826, 
in spite of the general failure to utilize school re- 
sources and possibilities to best advantage, the State 
was incomparably better off with its public schools 
than it would have been without them." 

American Institute of Instruction. 

The American Institute of Instruction, whose ob- 
ject is to diffuse useful knowledge respecting edu- 
cation, was organized in Boston in 1830, when elev- 
en states were represented at its first meeting held 
in the Hall of the House of Representatives. The 
following year the society was incorporated. It had 
an annual grant of $300 from the State until 1873, 
(with the exception of the first five years) when it 
became self supporting. 

Although denominated * 'American" it was really 
New England in limitation. 



42 COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS 



Massachusetts was the only state that made any 
contribution towards the support of this Institute. 

The first session was one of several (four) days, 
and the discussion centered about the condition of 
the schools in the New England towns. The first 
discourse delivered before the American Institute 
of Instruction was read by Francis Way land, Pres- 
ident of Brown University, who was the first presi- 
dent of the Institute. James G. Carter, who was in- 
strumental in founding the Institute, also participa- 
ted in this same meeting. 

Out of this organization which is still active grew 
the Massachusetts State Board of Education, and 
through it the Normal Schools. 

The amalgamation of this organization with the 
Massachusetts Superintendents' Association and 
other educational bodies is contemplated, and ex- 
periments along that line have been made. 

County Teachers' Associations. 

By an act passed by the legislature of 1848, fifty 
dollars a year was appropriated for each county 



I 



COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS 43 



Teachers' Association that held semi-annual meet- 
ings of not less than two days. This was the first 
grant from the state for county associations. In 
1864 the law allowed twenty-five dollars to county 
associations that held annual meetings of not less 
than two days. In 1880 the law granted appropri- 
ations if meetings were held not less than one day. 

Essex was the first to form such an association. 
It had been in existence since 1829, and a meeting 
w^as held at Topsfield, the county's geographical 
center, in June 1830 when a committee was chosen 
to report upon the expediency of organizing a coun- 
ty association. In the following December the pro- 
posed meeting was held, lectures given, officers 
elected, and constitution adopted. There was an 
attendance of about three hundred teachers and 
others interested in educational matters. The ob- 
ject was to better the existing methods of instruct- 
ion. It was incorporated in 1837. 

The following were the first County Teachers' 
Associations: Barnstable organized in 1835, Frank- 
lin in 1846, Hampden in 1847, Norfolk in 1848, 
Dukes in 1848, Berkshire in 1849, Bristol in 18^)9, 
Plymouth in 1850, Nantucket in 1852, Middlesex in 
1853, Worcester in 1857. 



44 MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FUND 



Massachuse'TTs School Fund. 



In 1833 an act to establish the Massachusetts 
School Fund was referred to the next general court. 
The act made no suggestion of better preparing 
teachers, the very pretext for establishing the fund 
in 1828. On Feb. 14, 1834 the bill authorizing the 
fund, established through the influence of Hon. Al- 
fred Dwight Foster of Worcester, became a law 
which follows: It provided that "all moneys in the 
treasury derived from the sale of lands in the state of 
Maine, and from the claims of the State on the 
government of the United States for military serv- 
ices, and not otherwise appropriated, together wath 
fifty per centum of all moneys thereafter to be re- 
ceived from the sale of lands in Maine, shall be ap- 
propriated to constitute a permanent fund for the 
aid and encouragement of common schools, provid- 
ed that said fund shall not exceed one million dol- 
lars. ' ' 

The fund has been increased from time to time 
until on Dec. 31, 1907 it amounted to five million 
dollars. 



MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FUND 45 



Established in 1834, it was increased in 1851 to 
$1,500,000, in 1854 to $2,000,000, in 1859 to $3,000, 
000, in 1894 to $5,000,000 by the payment of one 
hundred thousand dollars annually. In 1900 the 
State Board of Education recommended that the 
principal of the fund be fixed at ten millions. 

No town, the valuation of which exceeds two and 
one half millions of dollars, receives any part of the 
School Fund. 

The first payment of the School Fund, in 1836* 
was made directly to the towns and cities, amount- 
ing to $16, 176.02. 

Adverse Act of 186 1: "By gift of land in Back 
Bay to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 
the Boston Society of Natural History, the sum of 
$232,790.40 was diverted from the fund" within two 
years of the passage of the act of 1859. This square 
of land contained 131,520 square feet; at Si. 7 7 per 
foot it amounts to the above sum. 

Because of the liberal bounties paid to men who 
enlisted in the war of the rebellion the Massachu- 
setts Bounty Fund was created, toward the pa3^ment 
of which the legislature appropriated nearly all the 
receipts from the sale of lands in Back Bay as soon 



46 INDIAN SCHOOL FUND 



as the fund shall have reached $2,000,000. The 
amount paid into the fund was $456,930.06 "or less 
than 1 5 per cent, of the estimated profits of the en- 
terprise. * ' 

The manner of distribution of the income of the 
Massachusetts School Fund was first provided for 
by the Legislature of 1835, and amended in 1839, 
1840,1841, 1849, 1854, 1866, 1874, 1884, 1891, 1893. 

Indian Schooi. Fund. 

In Horace Mann's Tenth Report, p. 139, he states 
that there were, in 1848, Indians to the number of 
847 within the borders of the State. 

Since the policy of the Commonwealth was uni- 
versal and free education, it annually appropriated 
money for the support of schools for the Red Men 
as follows: 

For the Marshpee Indians, $100. 

For the Gay Head Indians, $60. 

For the Christiantown & Chappequiddick Indians, 
$60. (Edgartown & Tisbury) 

For the Herring Pond Indians, $20. 

(Sandwich & Plymouth) 



TODD NORMAL SCHOOL FUND 47 



In addition to these appropriations, the above- 
mentioned tribes received for the support of their 
common schools the incomes of $1,000, $600, $600, 
and $300 respectively. 

This aggregated $2 , 500 is further explained as fol- 
lows: In 1836 $30,000,000 was distributed to the 
several states. Of the surplus internal revenue 
of the United States national treasury, which was 
distributed to the several states, Massachusetts re- 
served S2500 as "The Indian School Fund." The 
income of this fund had been used for the purpose 
of maintaining schools for the Indians in Marshpee, 
Gay Head, Edgartown, Tisbury, Sandwich, and Ply- 
mouth. 

In 1869 the Indians were made citizens, and in 
the following year a distribution of that fund was 
made to the above-mentioned towns which were 
directed "to apply at their discretion, for the benefit 
of that portion of their inhabitants formerly called 
Indians, the money" so received. 

Todd Normai. Schooi. Fund. 

This fund given by Henry Todd, Esq. of Boston, 



48 DISTRICT SCHOOL LIBRARIES 



and paid to the treasurer of the Commonwealth on 
the 7th of June 1850, is a trust in control of the 
State Board of Education. The fund when given 
amounted to $10,797.72. The law in regard to this 
fund is as follows: "The income of the Todd fund 
shall be paid to the board of education, to be applied 
by said board to specific objects, in connection with 
normal schools, not provided for by legislative ap- 
propriations. ' ' 

The income has been expended for instruction in 
music, and for lectures given in the various depart- 
ments of natural science, in which Mr. Todd was 
deeply interested, and for other purposes. 

District School Libraries. 

On April 12, 1837, a week before the creation of 
the Board of Education, an act was passed author- 
izing each school district to expend the sum of $30 
to estabHsh a library, and $10 per year for new books. 
This movement was borrowed from the State of New 
York. The State Board of Education, in its First 
Report, deemed this movement of great importance. 

Books were especially designed for the purpose, 



DISTRICT SCHOOL LIBRARIES 49 



and the Board of Education supervised and recom- 
mended them. At first there were two series of 
fifty volumes each: one series for those ten or twelve 
years of age, or under; and the other series for ad- 
vanced pupils and parents. School committees of 
many towns urged the districts to make the school 
library an adjunct of the school system. 

Few districts availed themselves of the law, and 
in order to encourage the establishing and mainte- 
nance of district libraries, the legislature of 1842 
granted the sum of $15, to be taken from the school 
fund and expended in books, to every district which 
would appropriate an equal amount or more. Con- 
sequently many districts(one fourth) availed them- 
selves of the opportunity at a cost to the State of 
$11,355; the second year $11,295. The amounts 
annually drawn steadily decreased until 1850. 

In 1843 the law of the preceding year was ex- 
tended to undistricted towns and cities, giving them 
as many times $15 as the number 60 is contained 
in the number of children between the ages of 4 
and 16 years, provided an equal amount is appro- 
priated for the establishment of libraries. In 1848 
the number of volumes in the school libraries of 297 



50 STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 



towns numbered over 91 ,000 valued at over $42,000. 

After nine years, that is in 1850, the law author- 
izing state aid was repealed. The districts lost in- 
terest, the scheme was neglected, and the innova- 
tion proved a failure. 

The amount paid from the school fund was $31, 
260 representing 2,084 libraries, and the total ex- 
penditure twice that amount. 

[See 3d Report, pp. 24-32.] 

State Board of Education. 

The Massachusetts State Board of Education was 
established April 20, 1837, and was the first depart- 
ment of Education in the country. It consisted of 
the governor, lieutenant governor, and eight others 
appointed by the governor with the advice and 
consent of the council for a term of eight years, 
one retiring annually. 

On May 27 th the following persons v.- ere appoint- 
ed members of the first board of education: - 
James G. Carter, Emerson Davis, Edmund Dwight, 
Horace Mann, Edward A. Newton, Thomas Rob- 
bins, Jared Sparks, Robert Rantoul, Jr. 



STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 51 



(i) The selection of the members of the first 
board of education was based upon reHgious and 
political grounds. Carter, a Whig and Rantoul a 
Democrat were chosen from the House of Repre- 
sentatives; Davis and Robbins were orthodox cler- 
gymen; Dwight was a Unitarian; Mann, a Whig, 
came from the Senate; Newton, an Episcopalian; 
Sparks, formerly a Unitarian minister was Presi- 
dent of Harvard College; Dwight and Newton were 
business men. 

The board held its first meeting June 29th. It 
was authorized to appoint its own secretary, and 
Horace Mann, then president of the Senate, was 
elected. His salary was fixed at $t,ooo, increased 
to $1,500 in 1838, to $1,600 in 1849. He entered 
upon his official duties the last of August. 

Although the board in its first report, suggested 
that an allowance be made to the secretary for p03t- 
age, stationery and clerk -hire, Mann in his tenth 
report, p. 103, said:- "No allowance was made for 
any expenses incurred in the discharge of his (the 



(i) "Old South Leaflets," No. 135. 



52 STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 



secretary's) duties. During the continuance of the 
first Secretary in his office, no allowance was ever 
made for office -rent, clerk -hire, purchase of suitable 
or necessary books, and so forth, or for other inci- 
dental expenses. Though required, once in each 
year, at such time as the Board of Education shall 
appoint, to 'attend in each county of the Common- 
wealth, a meeting of all such teachers of Pubhc 
Schools, members of school committees of the sev- 
eral towns, and friends of education generally in the 
country, as might voluntarily assemble,' j^etnopart 
of the traveling or other expenses of these circuits 
was ever provided for or refunded. ' ' 

On the first of June 1849 two rooms in the State 
House were placed at the disposal of the Secretary, 
who was the executive officer of the board. Pre- 
vious to this the board had no office of its own, but 
had held its meetings in the council chamber. Mann 
had performed his office work at his own home, 
and while traveling. 

The names of the secretaries in order of service 
follow: - 

Horace Mann, 1837- 1848. 

Barnas Sears, 1848- 1855. 



STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 53 



Geo. S. Boutwell, 1855-1860. 

Joseph White, _, i860- 187 7. 

John W. Dickinson, 1877- 1894. 

Frank A. Hill, 1894- 1903. 

Geo. H. Martin, 1904- 1909. 

The work of the State Board of Education was 
for the most part advisory. Its duty was to collect 
and disseminate information for the betterment of 
the Massachusetts School System, and to suggest 
remedies for existing defects. 

By the law of 1837 the duty of the board was:- 
**To make a detailed report to the Legislature of all 
its doings, with such observations as their experi- 
ence and reflection may suggest upon the condi- 
tion and efficiency of our system of popular educa- 
tion, and the most practicable means of improving 
and extending it. ' ' 

The school returns were made up in the office of 
the secretary of the Commonwealth from 1838 to 
1 847 after which they were made up in the office 
of the Board of Education. 

The Massachusetts Board of Education has al- 
ways had its opponents ; e. g. in 1840 soon after 



54 STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 



the establishment of the Lexington Normal School, 
when a majority of the committee on Education was 
influenced, by those hostile to the educational prog- 
ress, including the Governor of the State, to render 
an adverse report against the continuance of the 
Board of Education and the Normal Schools. The 
minority of the committee, however, shed light of 
a more optimistic hue, and the Legislature by a 
vote of 245 to 182 voted not to adopt the majority 
report. 

(i)Again the committee of Hamilton and Savoy 
expressed the desire that the enactment creating a 
Board of Education be repealed, as they failed to 
discover that the labors of the Board of Education 
were of any possible benefit to their schools. 

Again the Board met opposition at the time 
when Mann raised the ire of the thirty-one Boston 
schoohnasters by his famous seventh report. 

In 1909, seventy-two years after its establishment, 
the Board was abolished by legislative enactment. 



(i) Abstract of the Massachusetts School Re- 
turns, 1839-1849, pp. 17, 323. 



STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 55 



Agents of the State Board of Education. 
(Before reorganization.) 
John T. Prince, Appointed in 1883. 

James W. MacDonald, Appointed in 1892. 

Frederic L. Burnham, Appointed in 1906. 

Julius E. Warren, Appointed in 1906. 

The office of agent was created in 1850 for the 
purpose of acquiring all possible information, and 
of advising school officials in all matters pertain- 
ing to the public schools. In this year $2, coo was 
appropriated for this purpose, and six temporary 
agents were at once employed to act for short peri- 
ods of time in different parts of the State. They 
were everywhere enthusiastically received. Two 
were retained for the remainder of the year. This 
authority was renewed in 1851, when an appropri- 
ation was granted for a term not exceeding two 
years; in 1853 not exceeding three years. There 
was no appropriation in 1856, when the time ex- 
pired and the agents were discharged. In 1857 
$4,000 was appropriated and two agents were ap- 
pointed. In i860 the office of agent became perma- 
nent by law. This was the year when no provision 
was made for the support of agents, and none were 
engaged after April ist. 



56 STATISTICS OF 1908 



Statistics of 1908. 

No. of towns and cities in the State, 354. 

No. of public schools, 11,677. 

No. of scholars of all ages in the public schools ; 

530,444- 
Average length of schools ; 9 months, 6 days. 

No. of teachers in the public schools ; 
Males, 1,341, 

Females, 13,752. 

Average wages per month, 

Males, $151 •39- 

Females, $60.68. 

Amount raised by local taxation for all children in 
the public schools, $14,664,067.68- 

Average taxation cost for all school purposes for 
each child in the average membership, $39.48. 



See Seventy-third Annual Report, pp. 88, 89, 91, 92, 



STATISTICS OF 1837 



Statistics of 1837. 

No. of towns in the State, 305 

No. of public schools, 2,918 

No. of scholars of all ages in the public schools ; 
In winter, 141,837 

In summer, 122,889 

Average length of schools ; 6 months, 25 days 
No. of teachers in the public schools ; 
Males, 2,370 

Females, 3»59i 

Average wages per month, including board ; 
Males, $25.44 

Females, $11.38 

Amount of money raised by taxation for all children 
between 4 and 16, $465,228.04 

For each child between 4 and 16, $2.63 



See Abstract of the Massachusetts School Returns 
for 1837, p. 302. 



58 NEW STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 



New State Board of Education. 

In the year 1909 discontent arose over the edu- 
cational condition in the State, and the Governor, in 
his inaugural address, suggested a single board in 
place of the two existing boards. The bill which 
was passed abolished both the State Board which 
had existed since 1837, and the Industrial Com- 
mission. A new State Board of nine persons was 
created, to be appointed by the Governor, four to be 
taken from the former State Board, one from the 
Industrial Commission and four others. 

The new board, appointed by Governor Draper 
0:1 the 30th day of June, 1909, to take office on the 
first day of July of that year, was composed as fol- 
lows: 

Frederick P. Fish 
Thomas B. Fitzpatrick 
Clinton Q. Richmond 
Ella Lyman Cabot 
Paul H. Hanus 
I,evi L. Conant 
Sarah Louise Arnold 
Simeon B. Chase 
Frederick W. Hamilton 



NEW STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 59 



The first four were members of the former State 
Board of Education, and the fifth was a member of 
the Industrial Commission. 

The new board met at the State House on the 
morning of July 2d, 1909, and effected a temporary 
organization with Frederick P. Fish as temporary 
chairman, and Mrs. Ella Lyman Cabot as clerk. 
Committees were appointed, and an adjournment 
made until July 14th. 

On November 14th of the same year the Board 
appointed Dr. David Snedden as Commissioner of 
Education, whose term of office began November 
1 5th for a term of five years. 

On February 11, 19 10 two deputy commissioners 
were chosen by the State Board of Education to 
hold office for five 3^ears. William Orr and Chas. 
A. Prosser were the appointees. 



See Seventy -third Annual Report, pp. 10, i 



6o SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1837 



School Returns of 1837. 

School committees were first required to make 
school returns in 1826. These first returns were 
meagre, and comparatively few towns submitted 
them. From the returns of 1837, the date of the 
estabhshment of the State Board of Education, when 
294 out of 305 towns complied with the law, we 
cull the following: 

Burlington:- "The town is not districted, and the 
children are at liberty to attend any school that may 
be keeping as they chose. Last winter the centre 
school commenced keeping alone, then the east and 
west schools were kept together, and after they 
were finished, the north and south began." 

Chesterfield:- Lowest wages per week for the fe- 
male teachers was $1.00; the highest $1.54. 

Deerfield:-" 'Orlando Hawks' district contains 
but two families and three scholars" 

Dorchester:- " Of the fourteen public schools kept 
in this town, thirteen are kept through the year" 

Edgartown:- "The persons between the ages of 7 
and 16 are divided into five classes of 52 each. 



SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1837 61 



Each class attends school ten weeks, and then goes 
out for the residue of the year, to give opportunity 
to the other four classes to attend, during their re- 
spective terras. ' ' 

Greenwich:- * 'In raost cases teachers board around 
the district." 

Hamilton:- The female teachers, who taught the 
summer schools only, were paid $1.56 per week in- 
cluding board. There were two terms, as was us- 
ual in most towns, the winter (closing about March 
I St) and the summer. 

Hingham:-"This town is not districted. There 
are ten public schools, four for males, with male 
teachers, and six for females, with females teachers. 
The ten schools are each kept six months in sum- 
mer; and all but one of them six months in winter. " 

Mount Washington:- "Both board and fuel are 
contributed by the parents. The value of the 
fuel only is $30.00. The amount of money raised 
for the 'support of schools' is $110.00 only." 

Northampton: - * 'There is one Boys' Town School 
and one Girls' Town School in Northampton. The 
first has two male, and the last three female in- 
structors. ' ' 



62 SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1837 



Salem:- "This city is not divided into the ordina- 
ry school districts. There is one school for colored 
children. ' ' 

Sandwich:- "There is no academy, but twenty- 
five private schools." 

Southwick:- "The board of the teachers in the 
common schools is contributed by the districts. 
In five districts, also, the wood is furnished gra- 
tuitously. " 

Stoneham:- "One Mann's school, kept for the 
whole town, three weeks, when a few large schol- 
ars mutinied, expelled the instnictor, and the school 
closed." 

• ' i- 

Waltham: - ' 'The Boston Manufacturing Company 
pays $250 to prolong the common school in the 
'factory district", where there are two schools of 
about one himdred scholars each." 

Webster:- "The school in district No. i, is divid- 
ed into three departments; viz. the high school, the 
middle school, and the infant school." 

Westfield:- "The Tontoosuck' district has four 
children only. ' ' 



SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1838-39 63 



School Reports of 1838-39. 

It is interesting to compare former school condi- 
tions with those of to-day. School reports render- 
ed by the school committees were first required in 
1838. For that year returns from 298 towns, and 
reports from 170 towns were received. 

This was the period when female teachers were 
hired for winter schools as an experiment, in con- 
sequence of which many schools could be kept six 
and one half months instead of two and one half 
months ; when the larger scholars of a district * 'have 
been accustomed to turn upon their heels and go 
home, whenever, upon approaching the school- 
house , they have seen the chaise of the committee- 
man in the yard" ; when a multiplicity of text-books 
was the rule ; when prudential committees vied with 
the town committees and vice versa ; when there 
was a total lack of apparatus ; when there was an 
almost utter indifference on the part of the parents ; 
when the cheapest teachers were sought ; when 
expenditure upon private schools often exceeded 
that upon the public schools ; when monitorial 
schools flourished ; when schools were closed on ac- 
count of the incompetency of the teachers ; when 



64 SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1838-39 



the length of the school year differed greatly hi 
different places ; when schools were sometimes kept 
in basements of private houses, and so forth, and 
so forth. 

Some encouraging features, however, were no- 
ticeable : - There were isolated movements of gra- 
dation ; music was introduced into some schools ; 
circulating libraries for teachers were suggested by 
the committees ; flogging was abolished in some 
towns ; parental interest was occasionally manifest ; 
normal schools were on the eve of establishment ; 
district schools were often prolonged by private 
subscription, and so forth, and so forth. 

Horace Mann, who was directed by the Board of 
Education to superintend the preparation of the 
Abstracts, stated th^t he omitted points of local na- 
ture, saying that "A town might feel mortified, 
and yet the State derive no benefit, from its being 
recorded, that, in one place, the discipline of the 
vSchool was so lax, that card playing was practised 
by the scholars, not only at intermission, but per- 
petrated during school hours ; that, in another, cer- 
tain scholars were reported to the towns by name, 
in open town meeting, for gross acts of misconduct 



SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1838-39 65 



in connection with the school ; that during a con- 
test in one district, concerning the schoolhouse, it 
took fire, though unoccupied, and burnt down ; that 
in another, where opposition against the instructor 
prevailed to some extent, the house was repeatedly 
rendered untenantable by the chimney's being 
closed up, and finally that the school was wholly 
broken up in consequence of these infamous pro- 
ceedings, and so forth, and so forth." 

The following statements, often in the exact 
words of the writer, have been gleaned from the 
"Abstracts of the Massachusetts School Returns 
for 1838-9." 

Schoolhouses. 

The schoolhouses in general were deplorable and 
are best described by adjectives used in the several 
reports of the school committees : "cold, dark, tm- 
plastered, shutterless, blindless, curtain less, dilap- 
idated, ill-constructed, ill-ventilated, ill-situated, ill- 
furnished, ill-proportioned, inconvenient, uncom- 
fortable, shabby, unhealthy, leaky, dingy, shatter^ 
ed, prison-like, smoky." 

"Nothing outside or in to recommend it." 



66 SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1838-39 



* 'There is hardly a family except the very poor- 
est, from dire necessity who would live a week in 
some 'of our schoolhouses. " 

. "One must sit in constant fear of being soiled, if 
not seriously injured, by the falling of the plaster- 
ing and lathing upon his head. " 

• ' 'Many schoolhouses scarcely merit the name ; 
they are located in unpleasant and bleak places, 
^re old iand shattered, cold and uncomfortable." 

"The house in No. 3, if closed tight, will not 
contain air enough to supply the lungs of one man 
eight hours, yet they shut up in this den of impure 
air fifteen to twenty children, six hours in each 
day." 

"The fire-place is small, so that the room often- 
times is not comfortable till near the time of recess 
in the morning." 

"Many of the districts are contented with paper 
and shingle glazing of the windows; without plas- 
tering for considerable spaces ; and what is plastered 
has become very dark colored, by time and smoke ; 
some with slab seats, and wooden door latches, or 
none at all. ' ' 



SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1838-39 67 



"When we think of these tottering frames, un- 
even floors, broken windows, and aboye all, the 
polar breezes which reign within, can we not find 
excuse for the reluctance of the children to attend 
school or, what is far worse than reluctance, their 
willingness to attend it for a wrong motive and for 
wrong purposes?" 

Seats. 

"If the house is made comfortable, as far as 
warmth is concerned, the seats are of such a con- 
struction as to make the child as uncomfortable as 
he would be, were he placed in that machine of an- 
cient punishment, the stocks." 

"In some schoolhouses the children are compel- 
led to sit hour after hour on a narrow plank, with 
nothing to support their bodies, unless they lean 
one upon another, which is too often done for the 
good order and quiet of the school. ' ' 

"Sometimes small scholars are placed on seats 
not more than 4 or 5 inches wide, and raised so far 
from the floor as to prevent the possibility of their 
reaching it." 



68 SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1838-39 



"A stump, with a piece of wood on the top call- 
ed a seat, with no back attached, affords no envi- 
able resting place for any one. " 

Attendance. 

"Non-attendance of children is an evil of great 
magnitude, which as the committee have found by 
experience, is easier to describe and lament, than 
it is to remedy." 

"In several of our schools, it appears there is an 
average absence of from 25 to 40 scholars daily!" 

"Even the subscription schools exhibit equal ir- 
regularity of attendance." 

"Every scholar has been absent more than one 
third of the time. ' ' 

"Scholars are permitted to pass and repass from 
one school to the other , according to their own ca- 
price or the will of their parents. ' ' 

One town had 632 scholars of legal age 116 of 
whom had not attended school a single day during 
the year. 

In another town of 350 scholars there were 95 
absentees each day. 



SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1838-39 69 



"During the past year, there have been several 
scholars in our schools who were only 2 years of 
age; 74 are reported only 3 years of age, and 90 
that were but 4 years of age. " 

"Indeed, much of the reluctance and aversion 
which children manifest towards school-going, may 
be traced to the shabby, dingy, prison -like appear- 
ance of the rooms in which, for so many hours of 
the cheerful summer or bright winter days, they are 
incarcerated." 

It was the duty of the ministers, the selectmen 
and the school committees "to exert their influence, 
to have the youth regularly attend the schools. ' ' 

Books. 

"In some instances whole pages are cut or torn 
from elementary books, and it is to be apprehended 
that this is done to evade the tavSk of becoming 
thoroughly acquainted with what those pages con- 
tain." 

"The traders in books are generally supplied by 
pedlars, who find it for their interest to dispose of 
as many unsalable books as in their power. ' ' 



70 SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1838-39 



"The multitude of books used is decidedly inju- 
rious, there being no less than 47 different school- 
books used in the district schools in this town. The 
committee found 25 in the center school, 18 in the 
north-east, 17 in the south and 15 in each of the 
other schools. In the center school there are 5 dif- 
ferent geographies in use, and of course there must 
be as many different classes in geography as there 
are geographies, and therefore five different classes, 
tn one single department. * ' 

"The great difficulty seemed to have originated 
in the multiplicity of the studies to which attention 
was given. With an average attendance of 30, 
there were 25 classes. Ancient history, philosophy , 
chemistry, algebra, astronomy, and one of the dead 
languages, were taught." The smaller children 
were necessarily neglected. 

Prudential Committees versus Town Committees. 

Definite bargains for teachers were frequently 
made by prudential committeemen before the can- 
didates presented themselves for examination before 
the town school committee. 



SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1838-39 71 



* 'Not the least of these evils is the hostility which 
is created in such cases between the town committee 
and the prudential committee. The fear of gener- 
ating this hostility frequently operates powerfully 
in the minds of the former, inclining them to appro- 
bate a candidate, which in other circumstances, they 
would unhesitatingly reject. Every teacher, also 
good or bad, secures some of the district on his side. 
Hence, commences the warfare between the district 
and town committee. And instances are rot infre- 
quent where the most complete ignoramuses have 
been supported and encouraged for the sole reason 
and no other, that they might resist the law, as well 
as the committee." 

"In district No. 5, your committee were informed 
that a school was kept, but the same was not visit- 
ed by your committee, as the instructress of said 
school never applied for a certiticate, as the law re- 
quires, and therefore, could not be considered as 
under any superintendence of your committee. ' ' 

Prudential committees often failed to notify the 
town committee when school was to begin, so that 



72 SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1839-40 



the town committee was unable to be present near 
the commencement, and furnish books to the schools 
in case the parents neglected it. 

School Reports of 1839-40. 
Manual Work. 

Carlisle : * 'The practice which has to some extent 
prevailed, introducing needlework into our summer 
schools, we cannot approve. It is a perversion of 
the design of their institution, and a misapplication 
of the funds drawn from the public for their support. 

If needlework is permitted in our summer schools, 
we see no reason why boot and shoe making, or any 
other employment, should not have a place in our 
winter schools ; or why teachers should not be ex - 
amined in reference to their skill in the mechanic 
aits, as well as to their knowledge of reading, etc.." 

Sherborn : "The second evil which we wish to 
notice, is the introduction of work into our schools. 
In the summer season, our schoolhouses frequent- 
ly present the appearance of a workshop. Braiding 
straw, and needlework appear, at times to be the 



SCHOOL RETURNS OF 1839-40 73 



principal employments. Now this must distract 
the attention of the pupils, and occupy much of the 
teacher's valuable time. But we have felt a delica- 
cy in taking such a step, without consulting the feel- 
ings of the town. We should, therefore, recom- 
mend to our fellow-citizens, should they think it 
proper, to pass a vote to this effect. " 

A note probably inserted by Horace Mann follows: 
"It may be proper to state in this place, that the 
town, at their last meeting, voted that work be ex- 
cluded from our Common Schools. ' ' 

Holden : *'The committee have noticed, in a few 
instances, that manual labor, such as sewing, braid- 
ing straw, and the like, has been introduced into 
schools. But, supposing this to be entirely foreign 
from the design of Common Schools, they have de- 
cidedly disapproved of it, and directed teachers 
not to allow it." 

Boarding around. 

"The practice of having teachers board aroxmd 
in families is increasing, and is much to be com- 
mended. In this way the people become acquaint- 
ed with them, and take much more interest in the 
school. " 



74 NORMAL SCHOOLS 



J Normal Schools. 

At the time of the establishment of the Normal 
Schools, teachers were not properly prepared nor 
qualified for their work, and were underpaid. Def- 
inite courses of studies were rare. Owing to the 
lack of confidence in the public schools, children in 
large numbers were attending private schools. The 
school houses were extremely wretched, deplorable, 
and inadequate. As far back as 1789 schools for 
the better preparation of the teachers were suggest- 
ed. 

James G. Carter of Lancaster, who afterwards 
became a member of the first Board of Education, 
the establishment of which rested upon the legisla- 
tive act of which he was the author, by a series of 
articles (i) in 1824-25, insisted that the establish- 
ment of a Normal School for the purpose of better 
preparing teachers was the only salvation for our 
public school system. Carter is often called the 



(i) "The Schools of Mass. in 1824," by James 
Gordon Carter in "Old South Leaflets", No. 135, 
Irom his "Essays on Popular Education. " 



NORMAI. SCHOOLS 75 



"Father of Normal Schools of America. " 

Dr. Elbridge Smith in an addiess at Worcester, 
Mass., before the Massachusetts Teachers' Associa- 
tion, said : ( I ) * 'The herald of this new dispensation 
in Massachusetts, which taught that boys and girls 
have minds to be trained as well as souls to be sav- 
ed, and bodies to be fed, is generally and properly 
recognized in James Gordon Carter." 

Attempts had been made by Carter to have the 
legislature appropriate money for the training of 
teachers, but to no avail. 

Governor Lincoln in 1826, and again in [827, rec- 
ommended in his annual message that steps be tak- 
en for the better preparation of teachers ; the re- 
port of the committee to whom the matter was re- 
ferred was favorable, but the bill was defeated as 
well as others of kindred nature within the next ten 
years. 

This bill of 1828 suggested the establishment of 
a school fund, called "The Massachusetts Literary 
Fund," for the maintenance of a Normal School 



(i) Fifty -eighth Annual Report, p. 467. 



76 NORMAL SCHOOLS 



and the encouragement of the common schools. 

In 1835 the House Committee on Education rec- 
ommended that a part of the Massachusetts School 
Fund be used to educate persons for the work of 
teaching, but the recommendation was ignored. 

The State Board of Education in their first report 
urged the establishment of Normal Schools. 

In 1838, a member of the State Board of Educa- 
tion, Hon. Edmund D wight of Boston, offered to 
give $10,000 for the training of public school teach- 
ers, provided the State would volunteer an equal 
amount. Mr. Dwight's proposition was accepted, 
and the legislature appropriated $10,000 to be plac- 
ed at the disposal of the Board of Education. 

With $20, coo at their disposal, the State Board 
of Education resolved to establish three Normal 
Schools to be continued three years as an experi- 
ment, one for the northeastern, one for the south- 
eastern, and one for the western part of the state. 

The people of Plymouth County, aroused by the 
enthusiasm of Mr. Brooks of Hingham and others, 
were very desirous of having one of the schools es- 
tablished in their county, and a meeting which was 
largely attended was held at Hanover, Sept. 4, 1838. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS 77 



Among those that attended were Hon. Horace 
Mann, Hon. Daniel Webster, Hon. John Quincy 
Adams, Hon. Robert Rantoul and Rev. George 
Putnam. The sum of $10,000 was needed for new 
buildings, and nearly two years elapsed before plans 
assumed tangible form. Abington, Duxbury, Ply- 
mouth, Marshfield and Wareham voted to appro- 
priate money from the surplus revenue distributed 
by the U. S. government. When it was decided 
to locate at Bridgewater, some of these towns re- 
fused to live up to their previous vote, and the 
requisite amount of money was consequently not 
forthcoming. Lefore any final decision had been 
made in regard to the school in Plymouth County, 
two other Normal Schools were established. 

The first Normal School of the state and of the 
country was opened at Lexington in July 1839 ; re- 
moved to West Newton in Sept. 1^44, and trans- 
ferred to Framingham in 1853. Females only were 
admitted, and the course was one of at least one 
year. 

The school opened in a small academy building 
with Rev. Cyrus Pierce of Nantucket as principal. 
Mr. Pierce, ' 'at the time of his election, was engag- 



78 NORMAL SCHOOLS 



ed with uncommon success, as principal of the pub- 
lic school at Nantucket. " [Third Report, p. 5.] 

On the opening day, which was rainy, the three 
visitors and the principal were present, and three 
pupils presented themselves for examination. The 
first term closed with 12 pupils, and the year clos- 
ed with 22. The model school contained 33 pupils 
at first. "Father" Pierce was from 1839 ^o ^^4^ 
the sole teacher. [See cut, p. 93, 53d Report.] . 

Dr. Elbridge Smith, in an address at Worcester, 
before the Massachusetts Teachers' Association, 
said : ( i) "It was my good fortune to see Mr. Pierce 
in his schoolroom, and I have never seen so much 
power exercised, with so much simplicity and kind- 
ness. His control of himself was complete, and, 
as a consequence, hi.s control of the school was ab- 
solute." 

Compare this humble beginning of one school, 
one teacher and three pupils, with the present ten 
schools, one hundred and forty teachers and two 
thousand pupils. 



(i) Fifty- eighth Annual Report, p. 463. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS 79 



As the State Board of Education had its oppon- 
ents, so had the Normal Schools. Charges were 
made against this school and the principal, as well 
as Mann himself. It is unnecessary to state, how- 
ever, that the charges were unsubstantiated. 

The early normal school buildings were rot suit- 
able structures, but such as were available. Eoth 
sexes were admitted at Bridgewater and Barre, and 
students were admitted for periods less than a year. 
At Barre many attended for only a term, others for 
two terms. This accounts for the larger numbers 
at these places. 

The requirements for admission to the early Nor- 
mal Schools were equivalent to a grammar school 
education of to-day. We must take into considera- 
tion, however, the fact that teachers then were train- 
ed for ungraded district schools. 

As is known, the experimental stage of the Nor- 
mal Schools was limited to three years, and at the 
end of that time a committee appointed for the pur- 
pose of reporting on the result, recommended 
$20,000 for the continuance of the Normal Schools, 

The specific object of the Normal Schools is to 
teach the science and art of teaching. Tuition is 



8o NORMAL SCHOOLS 



free. The teachers are appomted by the Board of 
Education. Each school is managed by a board of 
visitors. Courses are two, three and four years in 
length. 

As a result of the controversy between Mr. Mann 
and the thirty -one Boston masters, the Boston dev- 
otees of Mr. Mann, wishing to prove to him their 
confidence in his attitude toward educational sub- 
jects, offered to give $5,oco provided the State 
would give an equal amount to erect suitable build- 
ings for the Normal Schools at Bridge water and 
Westfield. The State accepted the offer, and the 
buildings were erected. This sum, however, was 
insufficient by six or seven hundred dollars, and 
Mann personally made up the deficit. 

An enumeration of the Normal Schools follows : 

Framingham, opened at Lexington June 3, 1839; 
removed to West Newton Sept. 1844 ; transferred 
to Framingham 1853. 

Westfield, opened at Barre Sept. 4, 1839 ; contin- 
ued until Nov. 1 84 1 when it was suspended till Sept. 
4, 1844 when it was re-opened at Westfield. 
Bridgewater, Sept. 9, 1840. Salem, Sept. 14, 1854. 



MASS. TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION 8i 



Normal Art, Nov. ii, 1873. 
Worcester, Sept. 15, 1874. Fitchburg, Sept. 11, 1895 

North Adams, Feb. i, 1897. 
Hyannis, Sept. 9, 1897. Lowell, Oct. 4, 1897. 

Massachusetts Teachers' Association. 

On Nov. 25, 1845, eighty -five teachers sutmnon- 
ed (Nov. 3, 1845) by the Essex County Teachers' 
Association, met in Worcester as the result of Mr. 
Mann's seventh Report, which dealt with his ob- 
servations on his tour of inspection of European 
schools, setting forth new piinciples and methods of 
teaching. Previous to this meeting a pamphlet of 
144 pages by thirty -one Boston schoolmasters was 
forthcoming, antagonistic in every detail to Mr. 
Mann and his views, and for a long time a spirited 
controversy ensued. WiUiam J. Adams was the 
only one of the thirty -one Boston masters who re- 
fused to sign the famous (infamous? ) document. 

Many were in favor of abolishing the Board of Ed- 
ucation and the Normal Schools, and the meeting 
refused to approve the Board of Education. ** Fa- 
ther" Pierce loyally supported Secretary Mann. 



82 MASS. TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION 



This convention formed the Massachusetts Teach- 
ers' Association. It was incorporated in 1846. In 
1853 the State granted $300 annually for five years. 
In 1857 ^900 in three ai:nual installments was 
granted, provided the Association furnish "The 
Massachusetts Teacher" to each board of school 
committee. This made an appropriation of f6oo 
annually. This was continued till 1865 when $800 
was appropriated till 1875. From 1875 an appro- 
priation of $300 was made yearly till 1880, after 
which time the association has received $300 an- 
nually. 

Council of Education. 

The Massachusetts Council of Education con- 
nected with the Massachusetts Teachers' Associa- 
tion is a representative body (limited in membership 
to one hundred) of delegates elected by the several 
associations of teachers. Its first meeting was held 
in I'oston, Nov. 25, 1904. Its aim is to improve 
popular education. Several important reports have 
been made some of which have been incorporated 
into the Annual Reports of the State Board of Ed- 
ucation. 



TEACHERS' INSTITUTES 83 



Teachers' Institutes. 

Another effective agency in our educational sys- 
tem is the Teachers' Institute. Its object is to give 
instruction in the art and science of teaching. 

In 1843 voluntary and self-supporting teachers' 
institutes were held in the state of New York. 
From these Horace Mann conceived the idea of 
holding similar meetings in Massachusetts. In his 
eighth report, that of 1844, he urged the adoption 
of teachers' institutes, but the legislature failed to 
make an appropriation. 

Hon. Edmund Dwight, a member of the first 
board of Education, made the estabHshment of in- 
stitutes possible by giving $i,oco toward their or- 
ganization, the first of which was held in Pittsfield 
in 1845. Three others were held the same year at 
Fitchburg, Bridgewater and Chatham, all of which, 
including the one at Pittsfield, were under the di- 
rection of Mr. Mann. These first four institutes 
were attended by more than 400 persons. It was 
a year later, however, that an act was passed es- 
tablishing them by law. At the time of their es- 
tablishment there was little professional spirit among 



84 



TEACHERS' INSTITUTES 



the teachers. 

The money given by Mr. Dwight was expended 
in paying the board of the members of the mstitiite 
in order to encourage a large attendance. 

At Pittsfield nothing was in readiness, so Mr. 
Mann and Governor Geo. N. Briggs swept the floor, 
built the fire , and put things in order. 

Gov. Briggs who was present at Pittsfield, rec- 
ommended, in his message to the legislature, an 
appropriation for the support of teachers' institutes. 
It was approved, and these meetings have now be- 
come a settled policy of the State. 

There was Httle opposition to their establishment - 
there being only five opposing votes in the House 
and none in the Senate. 

The number of j^early convocations follows ; 



1845 


4- 


1851 


12. 


1857 


II. 


1863 


8. 


1846 


6. 


1852 


16. 


1858 


10. 


1864 


8. 


1847 


4- 


1853 


12. 


1859 


9- 


1865 


7. 


1848 


5- 


1854 


13- 


i860 


5. 


1866 


7- 


1849 


6. 


1855 


II. 


1861 


9- 


1867 


7- 


1850 


12. 


1856 


10. 


1862 


8. 


1868 


7- 







TEACHERS' 


INSTITUTES 


85 


1869 


6. 


1879 


II. 


1889 


22. 


1899 


22. 


iSyo 


7- 


1880 


13- 


1890 


24- 


1900 


27. 


1871 


7- 


1881 


21. 


1891 


17- 


1901 


26. 


1872 


8. 


1882 


22. 


1892 


25- 


1902 


18. 


1873 


8. 


1883 


26. 


i8q3 


29. 


1903 


22. 


1874 


8. 


1884 


35- 


1894 


25. 


1904 


^3- 


1875 


8. 


1885 


17- 


1895 


17. 


1905 


15- 


1876 


6. 


1886 


II. 


1896 


29. 


1906 


19. 


1877 


9- 


1887 


4- 


1897 


20. 


1907 


20. 


1878 


12. 


1888 


19. 


1898 


24. 


1908 
1909 


21. 
16. 



The legislature of 1846 appropriated $2,500, $200 
to be used toward the expense of each institute. 
In some instances the expense exceeded $200, and 
Mann shouldered the deficit. Thus Massachusetts 
was the first state in the Union to aid Teachers' 
Institutes by legislative enactment. 

The law required the attendance of at least sev- 
enty teachers who were to remain in session not 
less than ten days. By the law of 1848 the attend- 
ance of at least fift}^ teachers was required. 

Teachers' Institutes were at first voluntary meet- 
ings, and were from one week to two months 
in duration, at the option of the members. 



86 TEACHERS' INSTITUTES 



In the course of time the sessions were shortened 
to fiv^e, then three, then two, and finally to one day. 
It was in 1849 that the duration of the institutes 
was put into the hands of the State Board of Edu- 
cation . 

The first ones took the form of regular school 
routine with more attention to subject matter than 
to methods. Classes were formed , lessons assigned , 
learned and recited --in brief it was a school com- 
posed of teachers -- in other words -- a model school. 

This similarity to a school was gradually lessen- 
ed. Evening sessions as well as day sessions were 
held, usually lectures, sometimes debates, of pop- 
ular interest. During these sessions, the expenses 
were paid by the State, the wages of the teachers 
by the towns. In rare ca^es towns deducted the 
wages of teachers for the time spent at the institute. 

Towns that had never had institutes took hold of 
the project with unbounded enthusiasm. In some 
instances, where the institutes were held several 
miles from the railroad stations, the committees pro- 
vided carriages, and lunches were provided for the 
teachers who lived at a distance from the place of 



TEACHERS' INSTITUTES 87 



the meetings. Everywhere the teachers were hos- 
pitably treated, and very generally gratuitously en- 
tertained. At other times, railroads, steamboat 
companies and stage lines issued free returns tickets. 
(i) The citizens of Lee, in 1846, furnished board to 
members of the institute at $1 per week. At anoth- 
er time, in 1848, board was given to female teachers 
attending the institute. A few years later this gra- 
tuity was extended to the male teachers as well. 
(2) The citizens of Hyannisand Sandwich, in 1849, 
gratuitously entertained the teachers the entire 
time [six days] , and felt that they had been the 
beneficiaries instead of the benefactors. In 1850 
other towns followed the example of furnishing 
board free. [Fourteenth Report, p. 54.] 

Although the institutes were in popular favor, 
several members of the legislature of i860 advo- 
cated their abolishment. Their endeavors were 
fruitless. 



(i) Tenth Report, p. 4. 

(2) Thirteenth Report, p. 48. 



88 EDUCATIONAL DATES 



Educational Dates. 

1635 First school founded in New England-- the 
Boston Latin School. 

1636 Harvard College founded. 

1642 First legislative enactment in regard to edu- 
cation . 

1647 Reading and writing schools required in towns 
of fifty householders ; grammar schools in 
towns of one hundred householders. 

1 683 Two grammar schoo.s and two writing schools 
required in towns of five hundred families. 

1789 School district sj'stem established. Arith- 
metic, spelling, English grammar and good 
behavior required. 

1826 Towns of 500 families were required to main- 
^ tain a high school of second grade ; towns of 

0^- 4,000 inhabitants a high school of first 

grade. Towns for the first time were required 
to elect school committees. Geography re- 
quired. Committees were required to make 
school returns to the Secretary of the Com- 
monwealth. 



^ 



EDUCATIONAL DATES 89 



1827 Election of prudential committees authorized . 
Entire support of the schools- by taxation 
made compulsor}^ for the first time. 

1830 American Institute of Instruction organized. 

1833 Age limit, 12 years -- 20 weeks schooling. iX 

1834 Massachusetts School Fund established, 

1836 First evening school in New England open- ^ 
ed in Warren Street Chapel, Boston. First 
employment law enacted. 

1837 Estabhshment of district school libraries au- 
thorized. State Eoard of Education estab- 
lished. 

1838 First annual returns mr.de to the Eoard of 
Education b}^ school committees. Selection of 
teachers by school committees authorized, 
unless town votes otherwise. Annual reports 
required of the school committees. 

1839 First Normal School of the State and the 
country opened. Minimum school year, six 
months. Female assistant to be employed 
in schools averaging 50 pupils, unless the 
town votes otherwise. 

1840 Springfield appropriated $1,000 for Supt. of 
Schools -- first instance of professional su- 
pervision in the State . 



90 EDUCATIONAL DATES 



1844 Committees empowered to dismiss teachers 
at any time. 

1845 Formation of Massachusetts Teachers' Asso- 
ciation. 

1846 Teachers' Institutes established. 

1847 Lyman School for bo5^s, at Westborough, es- 
tablished. 

y 1850 Appointment of agents of Board of Educa- 
tion authorized . First law to prevent truanc}^ 
passed. 
1 85 1 Establishment of free public hbraries author- 
ized. 

First compulsory school attendance law in 
the U. S. Age limits 8-14 years; 12 weeks 
schoohng required, 6 being consecuti v^e. 

1853 Forty-eight State scholarships estabhshed. 

1854 Election of superintendents of schools au- 
thorized. Salary determined by town. 

1855 Free text books authorized. Daily reading 
of the. Bible made compulsory in all schools. 
Vaccination law passed. 

1856 Industrial School for girls, at Lancaster, es- 
tabhshed. 

1857 History of the U. S. required. Number on 



/ 185: 



EDUCATIONAL DATES 91 



school board fixed at three, or some tiiultiple 
of three, one-third elected annually for a 
term of three years. 

1858 Drawing optional. 

1859 School Committees alone authorized to select 
teachers. Towns for the first time were re- 
quired to support a "sufficient number of 
schools" for the accommodation of all the 
children --6 months. 

i860 Music and Drawing permissive. 
1862 Teaching of Agriculture permissive. 
1865 Massachusetts Institute of Technology open- 
ed. 

1868 Worcester Polytechnic Institute opened. 

1869 Conveyance of pupils at public expense au- 
thorized. 

1870 Drawing required. District superintendencies 
authorized; Salary of superintendent to be 
fixed by the school committee. 

1872 Women's Education Association organized. 
Establishment of Industrial schools authoriz - 
ed. 

1873 Tv^^enty weeks schooling required. Age lim- 
it 8-12. Free text books permissive. 



92 EDUCATIONAL DATES 



1874 Women members of school committees le- 
galized. Age limit 8-14. 

1876 Sewing authorized. Important employment 
law passed. 

1 88 1 Women authorized to vote for school com- 
mittee. 

1882 School district system finally abolished. 

1883 Everiing schools authorized ; required in 
towns of 10,000 inhabitants. 

1 884 Free text-book and school supplies law enact - 
ed. (Sixteen towns had already adopted free 
text-book system.) Elementary instruction 
in the use of hand tools authorized. 

1885 The teaching of Physiology and H>giene re- 
quired. (Optional in 1850.) 

1 886 Evenir.g High schools required in towns of 
50,000 inhabitants. Permanent tenure of of- 
fice for teachers authorized. 

1888 Salary of district superintendent fixed at 
$1,250. 

1889 Povert}' exemption clause stricken out of 
attendance law. 

1 890 Thirty weeks schooling required if the schools 
continued that time. Ten days unexcused 
absences permitted. 



EDUCATIONAL DATES 93 



1 89 1 Free High school instruction required of 
every town. 

1893 First technical High school in Massachusetts 
established, Mechanics Art, Boston. 

1894 Minimum schooling, 8 months. KstabHsh- 
ment of the Educational Museum. 

1895 Instruction in Manual Training required in 
High schools in cities and towns of 20,000. 
First textile school in Mass., at Lowell. 

1898 A-ge limit 7-14; 32 weeks; attendance the 
entire time. Instruction in Manual Training 
required in High and elementary schools in 
cities and towns of 20,000 inhabitants. 

1 899 Establishment of vacation schools authorized . 

1900 Every town require J to have a superintend- 
ent of schools after 1902. 

1906 Commission on Industrial education appoint- 
ed. Appointment of school physicians com- 
pulsory, 

1908 Establishment of pension funds for teachers 
authorized 

1909 Organization of a new State Board of Edu- 
cation. Commissioner of Education appoint- 
ed. 

19 10 Teaching of Thrift required. 



9^ MASSACHUSETTS HIGH SCHOOL 



Massachusetts High School. 

The first Grammar school in Massachusetts - the 
Boston Latin School - wcs founded in 1635. This 
school like others that immediately followed was 
classical in character, and therefore college prepar- 
atory'. Such schools were modelled after the Gram- 
mar or public schools of England. 

In 1647 a law was enacted requiring every town- 
ship containing one hundred families or household- 
ers "to set up a Grammar School" - the expense to 
be borne by the town, or by the parents, or by both 
conjointly as the town may determine. This Gram- 
mar school, so called because the chief study was 
Latin, corresponds to our High school of to-day. 
Although there was a penalty attached to the non- 
compliance of this law, yet towns in increasing num- 
bers failed to fulfil the requirements of the statute. 

The law of 1683 required everj^ town of more than 
500 families or householders to set up and maintain 
two Grammar schools. 

So great was the magnitude of the violation of 
the law of 1647, that in 1789 a law was passed re- 
quiring the maintenance of the Grammar school by 



MASSACHUSETTS HIGH SCHOOL 95 



110 towns of less than 200 householders. This law 
exempted 1 20 towns from the requirement of main- 
taining Grammar schools, but 1 10 towns out of 265 
were still under that obligation, that is, out of 265 
towns, 230 would have been under the obligation to 
support Grammar schools under the previous law. 
Thus the boys in these towns were suddenly depriv- 
ed of a preparatory school. It was in this year that 
the school district system was authorized, which re- 
sulted in engendering the district spirit to the det- 
riment of the town spirit. The Grammar school 
was distinctly a town school in contradistinction to 
the district school. 

Interest, therefore, continued to wane in the 
Grammar schools, which were town schools, with 
the result that when few of the 172 towns were liv- 
ing up to the letter of the law, another law, in 1824, 
was passed requiring only towns of 5,000 inhabitants 
or over to maintain Grammar schools. This re- 
leased 165 towns out of 172, leaving seven commer- 
cial towns under the necessity of maintaining Gram- 
mar schools, namely Boston, Charlestown, Glouces- 
ter, Marblehead, Nantucket, Newburyport and 
Salem. 



96 MASSACHUSETTS HIGH SCHOOL 



In 1 75 1 the Grammar schools at Gloucester were 
akin to the portable schools of to-day, instruction 
being given in seven localities during three years, 
each having nine, four and one half, three, one and 
one half, vSeven, five and one half, and five and one 
half months respectively. 

Since the establishment of the Grammar school 
depended upon a moderately sized town, the towns 
of less population could not furnish secondary in- 
struction to its young people ; thus the rise of the 
academies which were practically private institu- 
tions, although supported in part by public funds. 
There were 854 academies and private schools in 
1 837 . Three years later there were 88 incorporated 
academies in Massachusetts. 

The rise of the academies [beginning with Dum- 
mer in 1763, the first endowed acadenty in Massa- 
chusetts, at Byfield, and Phillips Acadeiuy, Andov- 
er, founded in 1778] and the poverty of the people, 
may be added to the creation of the district spirit 
as the cause of the decadence of the Grammar 
schools. 

Other early academies were : 
Leicester, 1784. Westfield, i793- 

Berwick, 1791 Bradford, 1803. 



MASSACHUSETTS HIGH SCHOOL 97 



Academies came into existence from 1780- 1820; 
made part of state system by land grants, with en- 
riched curricula. The pendulum had swung too 
far, however, and reaction was the resultant. 

In 1826 two kinds of High schools were required 
by law, designated by the terms "finst grade" and 
"second grade," the former of which was required 
in towns of 4,000 inhabitants, and the latter in towns 
of 500 families. Practically the only difference be- 
tween these two grades was the study of Greek 
which was required in the High school of the first 
grade. The law affecting towns of 500 families was 
twice repealed (1829 & 1840) and twice restored 
(1836& 1848) Thus 22 years were required to es- 
tablish this law. 

Much of the opposition to the law of 1826 ema- 
nated from persor.s interested in private schools 
and academies, towards the support of which the 
State provided grants of land in the province of 
Maine. There was discontent, moveover, arising 
in some towns owing to the fact that the school 
could not be conveniently located for all. 

It has been noted doubtlessly that there has been 
a bold-faced violation of the school law up to this 



98 MASSACHUSETTS HIGH SCHOOL 



lime. It still continued as is shown by the follow- 
ing :(i) In 1838, 14 out of 43 towns required by the 
statutes to maintain High schools were complying 
with the law. In the 29 delinquent towns, out of 
$122,089 expended for public and private instruct- 
ion, about two fifths or nearly $50,000 wds expend- 
ed in private schools and academies. Many of these 
towns were among the wealthiest and most popu - 
lous in the State . 

The increase in the number of High schools has 
been marked, however : 

1838 14. 1876 216, 1898 261. 

1852 64. 1886 224. 1908 266. 

1866 156. 1889 236. 1909 270. 

In 1891 free high school instruction was required 
of every town in the State in either its own or in 
an outside High school. In this year 59 towns not 
required by law were maintaining High schools. 

The law of 1824 showed that the consensus of 
opinion at that time was that these institutions did 
not produce results commensurate with the ex- 
penses. So Grammar schools in only seven towns 

were required. 

♦ ^ » 

(i) First Annual Report, pp. 51-52. 



MASSACHUSETTS HIGH SCHOOL 99 



In contradistinction to the law of 1824, we have 
the law of 1891 which requires all town& to furnish 
high school instruction. The consensus of opinion 
now is that, regardless of expense, no child ought 
to be deprived of a high school training. 

The term "High School" was not used in the 
Massachusetts statute until 1882, although for years 
the terminology was used by school committees in 
their reports to the State . 

The distinction between "first" and "second 
grade" High schools was abolished in 1898. 

Boston had its English High School for boys in 
182 1 ; for girls in 1825, which continued one year, 
and was abolished in 1826 after this one-years's life 
because it was deemed too expensive. It was re- 
established in 1852. 



See 6ist Report, p. 347, by Frank A. Ilill. 
' 'A Modern School. " p.43, by Prof. Paul H. Hanus. 
"Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School Sys- 
tem," pp. 85, 115, by George H. Martin. 
First Annual Report, pp. 51-52. 
Fortieth Annual Report, pp. 34-47. 



loo MISCELLANEOUS 



In addition to the foregoing, Massachusetts has 
other educational features worthy of mention : Pub- 
lic libraries authorized by law in 1851 ; State schol- 
arships established in 1853 ; Women's Educational 
Association, which is still active, organized in Eos- 
ton in 1872; sixteen colleges, two technical insti- 
tutes ; riine special schools for defectives ; industrial 
school for girls at Lancaster ; Lyman school for boys 
at Westborough ; county truant schools ; independ- 
ent industrial schools, and so forth. Massachusetts 
has an interesting history of school supervision with 
Springfield taking the lead in professional work in 
1840. Massachusetts opened the educational door 
to women at Dummer, Leicester, Westfield and 
Bradford academies culminating in a liberal educa- 
tion at Mount Holyoke founded by Mary L3^on in 

1837. 

One of the most vital questions in Massachusetts 
is a definite status of the school superintendent. 
The system has suffered and will continue to suffer 
unless the 

APPOINTMENT 

of teachers is placed in professional hands. Power 
to nominate will not solve the problem. 



3CT 15 1910 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
OCT 15 1910 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 876 347 



